Following the demise of the Battle Action Force strips, a weekly Action Force comic was launched by Marvel UK on 8 March 1987, consisting of reprints of the US G.I. Joe comic book and new UK-exclusive short strips. The G.I. Joe comics were adjusted to fit into the UK strip’s continuity and had all references to G.I. Joe replaced with Action Force, and the UK-exclusive strips maintained a separate continuity from the US G.I. Joe comic. The Action Force comic was cancelled in 1988 after fifty issues due to low sales and was replaced with Action Force Monthly, which was itself cancelled after fifteen issues. The Action Force Monthly title printed new stories as well as reprinting stories from the weekly title. The magazine was released in the US under the title G.I. Joe – European Missions.

In late 1989, the G.I. Joe story reprints were continued in the UK Transformers comic under the name G.I. Joe the Action Force to conform to the toy line. The reprints changed back to G.I. Joe until they were dropped in 1991. In 1995, Panini Comics obtained the Marvel UK licence and began publishing an Action Man comic the following year without reference to Action Force or G.I. Joe.

Thank you so much…I grew up with both the Palitoy Action Force (the ‘original’) and later on, the “GI Joe” (or again, “Action Force” as we knew it) and I LOVED it…never missed a copy, every Monday it came out. I spent many happy, simple hours playing with the toys and

Thirty years later, I can read these again and share them with my nephew (who grew up later than the “golden age of comics” as I remember it)…I thought it was all lost, but thanks to people like you, it is not and they are preserved for future generations who can share in our happy memories.